He began to wriggle himself forward through the stunted trees until at last he was able to peer over the crest of the ridge, and the rest followed his example.
A small, blackish lake lay in the marshy valley below. On the shore opposite to us were two log cabins, several huge piles of dirt, and a crude derrick. Daylight was streaming into the valley, dispersing the night fogs, and we made out two men moving about the buildings. Brack swore much but softly.
“Slade and Harris!” He paused to curse again. “—— ’em! We’re too late. —— you, Pitt, you’ll pay for this.”
“What the ——!” snarled Madigan as the captain hesitated. “What’s all this foxy work for, Foxy? They’re two and we’re ten. Why don’t we go down an’ clean ’em up?”
“Easy—easy, Tad,” said Brack softly. “No noise. Slade and Harris are too good with the rifle to try any straight rushing. Besides, there’s a back trail over there, and they might get away. They’ve got the gold cached some place and we may need ’em alive to learn where it is. A little hanging up by the thumbs will make ’em tell. Gad! The fools! They’ve got three dumps; that means three shafts. The thing’s richer than I thought, and they’ve kept it all right down there because they swore to stay there till they had a hundred thousand apiece.”
“Gawd!” whispered Garvin. “Let’s take a chance, cap.”
“Easy, Garvin, easy!” chuckled Brack. “They’re a couple of suckers, but they can shoot.
“Well,” growled Madigan, “let’s have it—when do we go get ’em?”
Brack studied the scene before him for several minutes before replying.
“We’ve got to wait until they’re in the shafts,” was his decision. “This is too big a risk, giving ’em a chance. If we jump ’em now from this side they’ll put up a stiff fight and at the same time have a chance of getting away over their back trail. And if they get into the woods, they won’t leave the gold where we can find it easily. We’ve got to spoil that back trail for ’em.”